


A Blossom in the Desert

by Tobiroth



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: F/M, Hanahaki Disease, M/M, hanahaki
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2019-03-10 11:06:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13500554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tobiroth/pseuds/Tobiroth
Summary: After being attacked by a massive underground creature in the Midgar wastes, Zack starts coughing up cactus blossoms.  It's about as weird as you might think.  Cloud, despite also being wounded, shows no similar symptoms.  Cloud, Zack, and their friends try to figure out what it means for Zack - and what it doesn't for Cloud.





	A Blossom in the Desert

As they inched closer to the ID inspection gate to let them out of the city, Zack said over his shoulder, "You excited?"

"Oh yeah," Cloud answered. He said it a bit too breathily, like he was about to see a favorite idol at a concert. Zack did not tease him; he likely felt the same.

"Hold on tight - as soon as we're out I'm gonna gun it."

Cloud squeezed his friend's chest tight enough to wind an unenhanced man. It just made Zack laugh a bit. Eventually it was their turn, and the Infantryperson stationed at this Northern exit squinted at them, hand out to accept their IDs.

"Hey Martina," Cloud greeted.

Her hand retreated and turned into a wave. "Oh, Cloud, hey!" They had the same drills section together the last half of the year. She seemed impressed by the motorcycle Cloud sat on, and by who he clutched on to. "I'm jealous. Have fun."

The traffic stop was one of the worst positions to be rotated on for the Infantry; Cloud would be jealous if he was in her shoes too. He nodded goodbye and Zack moved on, through the gap in the wall surrounding the city. They went slow until they maneuvered around other outbound traffic, down a long ramp, and then off the road and onto the hard ground of the wasteland outside Midgar.

He accelerated hard.

There was a moment of sheer terror, even though Cloud was holding on so tightly - it felt like his soul was being left behind the rest of his body like in some old-style cartoon. Then he was present again, behind Zack, the both of them rocketing across the hard ground as wind whipped their faces.

Zack let out a joyful shout, his voice quickly swallowed up by the air around them. Cloud joined in, not even feeling shy like he did sometimes, yelling as loud as he could because  _holy fuck this was fun._

They stopped at an empty expanse that looked the same as all the other empty expanses nearby. There were a couple shrubs. Some rocks or a cliff face in the distance. They climbed out, turned to each other, and did that thing where you grab at the other person and jump in place and make stupid faces.

Thankfully, no one was around to see it, or they'd both be mortified.

" _Dude,_ " Zack said, falling to his knees in the dirt and holding up his hands to the engine, which was still white-hot from the trip over, warming his hands like it was a fire.

"I know," Cloud admitted. He knelt on the other side, and the two of them spent a couple minutes poking at different parts of the bike. Cloud lifted up the seat to see the storage area underneath. Zack admired the webbing of the rubber on the handlebars. Cloud eyed the sleek ShinRa logo.

They both agreed: it was beautiful.

"It's 'cause I'm a First Class," Zack boasted, puffing out his chest. "They let me pick - private chopper service, or my own motorcycle. I'm always goin' places doin' missions and stuff. Of course I chose the bike."

Cloud nodded. "That's a no-brainer."

"Especially because half the time the chopper's piloted by that one Turk I hate, the red-haired one."

"Did they give you anything with the specs? Horsepower, stuff like that?"

"Yeah, it's in my apartment somewhere I thi-"

Zack finished the rest of " _-ink_ " while jumping up high into the air, looking alarmed. Cloud craned his neck up, confused, but it only lasted a moment before something wrapped around his ankle and dragged him, yelling, across the dirt.

Pain and noise, scraping along his face and arms - and then Cloud was airborne for a brief moment, looking sideways at Zack, who hadn't dodged well enough and was also being whipped around by - something. Cloud hit the ground hard, smacking his head on the dirt and grunting as he saw stars. His shoulder took the brunt of the impact and numbness shot through the right side of his body.

Even as he was pulled across the ground again he wrestled with what was wrapped around his ankle. It was a vine, something green and leafy and  _thorny_  - he let go with a gasp as sharp tines stabbed into his fingers. It lifted him up and smacked him into the dirt again,  _one, two,_ and on the third Cloud was lifted into the air one more time, although this time he continued upwards. Through his watering eyes he saw that the vine had been severed.

Zack caught him in mid-air and they floated back down to the ground together, Zack landing hard but sticking it, not daring to go into a roll to absorb the inertia with Cloud in his arms.

Beneath them, a growl - and then the dirt a dozen feet away rumbled. Then two dozen feet away. Three.

"It's," Cloud panted, blood seeping down off his hairline into his eyes, "Retreating."

"Oh, fuck," Zack panted. He had all his weight on one foot. He set Cloud down, and as Cloud stood he staggered to the side. Both of them had broken ankles, their feet sticking out at odd angles.

"What was that thing?"

The earth, cracked and destroyed, radiated out from them for a dozen meters. All around them were flower petals, scattered, and the occasional full bloom. Whatever that thing was… it was big.

"Dunno," Zack panted, hopping on one leg. He got to the motorcycle, which had tipped over in the battle, and from his pack on the back pulled out a Cure. He gestured for Cloud to get closer, ignoring his own bleeding cuts.

"It got you good," Zack said, sitting down. Cloud joined him, grimacing horribly as his ankle was jostled. He felt like he'd scream if he opened his mouth.

Zack inspected his ankle. Where the monster (maybe a monster?) had grabbed Cloud, the flesh was stabbed and rubbed raw. Blood oozed from it. Cloud couldn't look. "It got my hands too," he said, holding them out. It had felt like slapping a bunch of wide blood-drawing needles.

Whistling, Zack activated the Cura. "You'll be okay, Spike," Zack murmured.

Cloud didn't doubt it. He'd never had the pleasure of being on a real mission with Zack, not anything life-or-death, or with a real intense fight besides. If Cloud had been on the verge of death, and found by Zack on a battlefield somewhere...well, the way he was acting right now, soft and concerned but most of all  _confident_ put Cloud at ease.

"I gotta set the bone though."

"Oh, fuck," Cloud breathed. "Just do it."

Zack had managed to free him with the knife he always kept in his boot; Zack could do anything. Healing them would be no problem.

Sure enough, he snapped Cloud's ankle back into place and Cloud screamed into his fist, but then the magic washed over him and the pain was fading.

The injuries around his ankle faded, flesh knitting itself back together. Three long needles oozed their way back out of Cloud's skin - it hurt like  _fuck_ \- and fell to the dirt. As Zack healed his hands Cloud muttered, "It's like… a giant cactus with tentacles."

Zack laughed slightly. It was pained, Cloud could tell, but Zack was trying.

Next Zack used a strip of his shirt to clean away the blood on Cloud's head and ran a few quick tests to make sure he didn't have a concussion. (Strifes were hard-headed.) When Cloud was healed, he immediately pushed up Zack's pant leg to look at his friend's situation.

Just as gruesome - with more needles stuck in his ankle, too.

"Do you think they're venomous?"

"Don't think so," Zack said, "I feel fine. What about you?"

"Other than disgusted, I'm good."

"Heh." Zack was clenching his jaw, clearly preparing for something big. Cloud looked away just in time to hear Zack set his own ankle, giving a pained grunt as a loud  _snap_ echoed in the nothingness around them.

The ankle, the cuts on Zack's knees, the scraped elbow. When they were mostly patched up they stood and stared at each other, the adrenaline fading from both their systems.

Zack muttered, "Let's go home," and Cloud nodded wordlessly.

He clung to his best friend's back on the ride back into the city, considerably slower this time. Without Zack there… what would have happened to him? Would it have killed them? Was it like a real octopus, with a big mouth waiting under the ground to swallow them both up? Man, he was grateful for his friend.

Zack was quiet on the ride back, and Cloud yelled over the wind, "You okay?"

"Nauseous," Zack called back.

Cloud didn't feel nauseous at all; he hoped it was just the come-down from the fight. Some folks got that in the Infantry.

Back in the city, above the Plate, and into HQ. Zack parked in the SOLDIER garage, easing the bike into its spot. As soon as he killed the engine he got off the bike and flopped down on his stomach onto the pavement. "Zack!" Cloud said, dropping to his knees beside him, concerned. "What's wrong?"

"Ugh," Zack answered, his voice muffled into his arms. "I just feel really...sick all of a sudden. I needta lie down a sec."

Cloud waited, worried. Zack lay there, breathing evenly.

Then he started to cough. And cough.

Ohhh  _fuck_ Zack was going to  _die_ right here in the damn garage and his PHS had no signal here and oh my Gaia  _ZACK_

Zack, now on his knees, with big heaving coughs that wracked his whole frame, reached into his mouth. He gagged, and then he pulled out a flower.

A small pink flower with a pretty yellow inside, a bit soggy from his spit.

At the same time they both said, "What the fuck?"

* * *

Genesis texted them both under the table at the meeting he was in, and Angeal called Zack, worried, from halfway across the world.

"You coughed up a flower?" He asked, on speakerphone on the table between Zack and Cloud's beds in the infirmary.

"Four of them so far," Zack answered. He lay back on his bed, a cool washcloth on his forehead. Despite having, well, coughed up four small pink flowers, he seemed remarkably calm. Cloud, the next bed over, was worried sick.

"Do you know what kind of monster it was?"

Cloud answered for Zack, since his throat was a little sore. "No clue. Vines."

"You're okay, Cloud?"

"Mmhm. Zack saved me. Thanks Angeal."

"Text me any details you remember about it. I'll ask around. And… feel better, Zack. I don't want to have to make a bouquet with nasty spat-up flowers."

Zack and Cloud both chuckled, and shortly after they bade Angeal goodbye.

"...You think you're gonna have another one?" Cloud asked tentatively.

"Not at the moment, I don't think." Also on the table between them was a clear jar where they were keeping the nasty, slimy things. They both stared at it, flummoxed.

Cloud sighed. "I don't get why I'm not doing it too."

"Me neither, but I'm glad you're not. This sucks."

One of the nurses came back in and took Zack's temperature again. A little warm, but otherwise he seemed to be normal. When she used the stethoscope to listen to Zack's chest, even  _that_ seemed normal.

"Oh, hey," Zack said, a few minutes after she'd left again, looking vexed as she walked out with Zack's clipboard. "Seph's here."

Cloud's stomach dropped to his feet, but he didn't have time to panic because then Sephiroth opened the door to the tiny room. He took up so much space in it, tall and imposing in his usual outfit. He looked concerned. Green eyes darted between Cloud and Zack, back and forth between them three times before he went to Zack, who raised a hand to greet him hello.

"Hey," Zack said, "You need any flowers for that special someone? Eyyyy?"

Sephiroth did not crack a smile, though Cloud did.

"Coughing up flowers," Sephiroth said, like a statement.

Gesturing at the jar of evidence, Zack groaned, "Yeah. How weird is that?"

"You are otherwise unharmed?"

Zack nodded, and then explained where he and then Cloud had gotten banged up. When he started on Cloud's injuries Sephiroth finally turned to him, and the intensity of his gaze made Cloud flush. His eyes swept up and down Cloud's form, searing him. He scanned for remaining injuries - Cloud helped him out, and wiggled his fingers and lifted up his pant leg to show his ankle, which only had a small scar there to show where the monster had cut into him.

Sephiroth touched the scar, his touch as gentle as a flower petal. Cloud watched him quietly, not moving as Sephiroth then pushed back Cloud's bangs to check his forehead. The damage there was gone too. He moved his finger and Cloud tracked it with his eyes, Sephiroth doing the same tests Zack had out in the field. When he judged Cloud to be healthy enough he said, "Hm," and then, a moment later, more softly, "I am glad you were not more gravely injured."

Happiness bloomed in Cloud's stomach like a flower opening to the sun.

"No flowers for you?"

Cloud shook his head. "I don't know why."

"Yeah, I wasn't hit with any special attacks or spells from it, or at least I don't think so." Zack ran over the entire incident to Sephiroth, from when he first felt the vibrations of it underground and jumped up high, to when it dragged Cloud off and then got him moments later. Zack actually had to break his  _own_ ankle in the thing's hold to get to his knife.

Zack had done all that to free Cloud from its clutches. Cloud felt so grateful - and also frustrated at himself for being so useless.

Zack remembered to bring a weapon to their fun afternoon outside the city; why hadn't he? Sure, his rifle was clumsy, but he could have packed a materia too, or at least his switchblade.

Admonishment came from across the room. "Spike, I know what you're thinking, and stop it. Neither of us thought something would get the drop on us that fast."

Guiltily, Cloud looked up from his clenched fists on the bedspread. Zack winked at him, though he was looking pale again, and Sephiroth watched him quietly, saying nothing. The SOLDIER sat on the edge of Cloud's bed, it dipping to the side with his weight. He turned back to Zack, but Cloud felt like Sephiroth was showing his support through that.

"Oh. Blegh," Zack said, and that was all he got out before he started coughing again.

Sephiroth watched impassively as Zack turned onto his side, coughing deeply, wet, reverberating hacks that shook his bed. He reached into his mouth and pulled out another soggy pink flower, dropping it into the jar and sagging back onto his bed.

All the oldest man said, lost in thought, was, "Bizarre."

Cloud realized he was clutching Sephiroth's arm, his blunt nails digging into the leather of the man's coat. He let go, shooting Sephiroth a sheepish look, but Sephiroth gave him the smallest of smiles, an  _it's okay if you were worried about him_ kind of smile.

After talking it over, the working theory was that: the needles of the cactus-monster were venomous, and because Zack tended to Cloud first, the venom stayed in his system longer, explaining why Zack was infected with this 'disease' and not Cloud.

Both of them stressed that this was not Cloud's fault. Sephiroth looked Cloud in the eye and told him, "It's standard procedure. When the injuries are not life-threatening, and if there is no more risk of immediate danger, we tend to the weaker among us first."

Zack winced a bit at the wording. "And you're not  _weak,_ Cloud, it's just that I wasn't gonna let it hurt my buddy any more without me patching him up a bit first."

Cloud still felt kind of bad about it… but he nodded, trying to believe them.

"The flowers you saw during and after the battle - were they the same as these?"

Zack and Cloud studied the jar, and then each other. "Yeah… I think so," Cloud sighed. "They were pink, weren't they, Zack?"

"Pretty sure. So what - I'm becoming part cactus monster?"

Sephiroth said gravely, "Who knows. I'll do some research."

* * *

Zack and Cloud did as well. The first night two doctors had come to Zack and explained their frustration; nothing in the ShinRa databases mentioned coughing up flowers. They spent the next day between the ShinRa and Midgar Public libraries, going over medical textbooks and journals and going through the indexes for anything mentioning cactus monsters or regurgitating flowers.

Genesis Rhapsodos helped, because between Zack and Cloud neither was all that good at doing lots of research. Genesis rubbed Zack's back through it every time he had another episode and reminded Cloud, several times, that his best friend was going to be alright.

"Thanks." Cloud was grateful. He used to be not very fond of Genesis at all, before he really got to know him and thought he was just some asshole. Now Cloud knew he was an asshole, yeah, but also a lot more things, like a good friend, a good cook, and a guy who liked to tell people he was drinking whiskey when really it was just banoran apple juice on the rocks.

Genesis smiled crookedly at him, boxing him gently on the shoulder. "I meant it, but I think Sephiroth would have my head if I said anything to upset you further, regardless."

Smiling shyly, Cloud hid the lower half of his face in his infantry scarf. Yeah… Sephiroth cared for him. That much was obvious. That blossoming feeling in his tummy again.

Despite the long hours put into the libraries the next day, they also had nothing.

Cloud had to get back to his regular schedule unfortunately, so the next day he saw Zack in the evening after all his drills and classes were over.

The jar was a third of the way full now, and Zack kept it sealed tight because the smell of all that nasty spit was pretty revolting. They stared at it glumly.

"What kind of flowers are they?" Cloud asked after a time, after Zack added another one to the collection.

"Dunno."

"Well, uh. You know someone who knows a lot about flowers, man."

"Uh, wha-?" Zack jolted, looking scandalized. He stared at Cloud for a long moment, and the infantryman tilted his head, wondering what he'd said wrong.

"Um, Angeal?"

"Oh. Right. 'Geal." Zack blinked rapidly for a moment, then reached for his PHS. "Think I should send him a picture?"

"Yeah. Make sure it's as gross looking as possible."

They got a mind-bending picture of the bottom of the jar, where everything was magnified and upside-down. Then Zack texted Angeal a proper picture of one of the blossoms, which Cloud opened up as much as he could, complaining the whole time about how disgusting it was.

Angeal called them back an hour later.

"Hey," he greeted. "In camp for the night. It's a cactus blossom."

"Dude," Zack breathed.

"The senita cactus, more specifically - shaggy, dense spines, not like... a mohawk, where there's just a few in a row?"

Zack thought back to the monster's vines. "Yeah, I think so. Cloud?"

Cloud nodded.

"Do you know anything else about them?"

"Hang on, I wrote down a few things. - Uh, they grow at high elevations. They open at night and are closed during the day. The stems of the spines are a blueish-gray. You haven't had any spines, have you? Just flowers?"

"Thankfully," Zack said, gulping. Cloud patted his back.

"I don't know anything more than that. I'll keep looking."

Zack frowned at his PHS. "Will you be back soon?"

"Yes, I'll hurry."

Zack was a big SOLDIER First now, but even he still had times when he felt safest with his mentor around.

* * *

"Flowers, can you believe that?"

Nibelheim only had three working phones, and only one of those was a public pay phone. He never got to talk to his mom on the phone for long and the connection was always staticky. Still - hearing his mom's voice always cheered him up.

"If we didn't live in a world of magic, I would say no." His mom still sounded a bit awed. "Do they hurt him?"

"I don't think they scrape him or anything. It leaves his throat really sore, and it's uncomfortable, obviously, but not hurting."

"That's good."

Cloud hummed. Sephiroth came to see him that morning. He came right up to Cloud's bunk, knocked on the door, and asked for Cloud. Cloud was  _still_ in disbelief. He'd been in a tank-top and his boxer-briefs, mortified, but Sephiroth, after staring at him a few moments too long, told him that he had something to discuss and waited outside. They'd walked around the outside of the Tower, discussing Zack's situation at length.

Sephiroth hadn't had much luck finding things out either. He'd even - regrettably - asked Hojo about it. As a last resort, they were going to bring Zack in for a few tests (all with Sephiroth, Genesis or Angeal's close supervision, of course).

"Sephiroth is helping too," Cloud said quietly, a smile spreading on his face.

Cloud's mom made a knowing sound. She said, kindly, "I'm glad he's helping you help your friend."

Blushing, Cloud nodded absently, looking at the spread of his notes and a book about horticulture. His mom could read him like a book.

She paused, then, and said, "Hold on a moment. Cactus blossoms, you said?"

"Yeah."

"I don't remember fully but… I think Águeta told me a story about them once."

Águeta - "The woman on the other side of the mountains?"

"Mm. Outside Rocket Town." His mom had made friends with another outcast - they sent letters sometimes. A pen pal, now that her son was out of the house. "I have to go, but I'll try to call her tomorrow. I don't know if they have phone service or not over there."

"It's okay, Ma, that'll be expensive-"

She laughed, light and airy. "It's for Zack, shush. You can just add a little extra next time you transfer over your paycheck."

"Yes, Ma," Cloud sighed.

* * *

"I'm waiting for a call from my mom, she might have something."

"Oh?"

Sephiroth looked over at him from the table. They'd spent most of the evening together, pouring over old letters (in Sephiroth's case) and videos online (in Cloud's). No luck yet.

Cloud stretched long and tall on the couch, letting his shoulders and spine settle back into place. Sephiroth watched him, watched his shirt ride up and the teen relax, boneless, into the leather of the couch. Cloud stared back evenly, not at all surprised to find Sephiroth staring. "...Yeah," he answered. "Her friend outside Rocket Town might know something."

Sephiroth seemed doubtful - he was a man of science. If it wasn't in a textbook somewhere then it probably wasn't anywhere. He didn't discourage Cloud though, and nodded.

Eventually Cloud's concentration faded altogether, and he started doing his favorite thing - looking up videos of his SOLDIER friends. Some people did mashups of news clips of them and put it to music; those were always fucking hilarious. One person autotuned a speech of Sephiroth's and made a song out of it that circulated the internet for a week or so. Sephiroth always threatened to run someone through with Masamune if they played it.

This was someone posting a 'reaction' video to Angeal's most recent public appearance, some sort of gala. The video opened with poorly-done transitions and title screens, and then a teenager who introduced himself as Tom spent a minute gushing about Angeal, talking about the Keepers of Honor, and preparing himself for the clip of Angeal walking the red carpet in a suit, the trusty Buster on his back.

Cloud laughed hard at the over-the-top reactions, chuckling at the comments of people hyping up Angeal and discussing his finer points.

From there he ventured deeper into the video hosting platform, eventually ending up on a video of wild cats in the savannah where someone had edited Sephiroth, Angeal and Genesis's faces over top of the cats' faces.

"Cloud Strife," Sephiroth said, in a low and dangerous voice from across the room, "You are being very distracting."

He sounded scary but he was teasing; Cloud could see the amusement in his eyes. "Come over here," Cloud encouraged. "Take a break, Sephiroth… er, Sephiroth."

Sephiroth not having a last name made it difficult to tease him back sometimes. Sephiroth smiled and acquiesced. Cloud stayed stretched out on the couch, his head propped up on the armrest, and Sephiroth sat on the floor beside him, elbow on the couch, chin in his hand, peering at Cloud's PHS screen.

"Someone made a top fifty reasons why they love Zack."

They watched, amused at things like  _When he runs his hands through his hair_ and  _He stands up for his friends._ So many people really liked Zack…

Sephiroth was watching him; Cloud could tell. He looked over. Sephiroth was just a few inches away. He looked like he might say something, but he didn't. His gaze said it all:  _Zack is worth saving. We'll get him healthy again._

* * *

Cloud spent the night on the couch, warm under the comforter off of Sephiroth's bed (!) and using a pillow of his that smelled like shampoo (thirteen different scents?). The sound of his ringtone woke him. Sephiroth was long gone, and he didn't have to be at his first class for another hour.

"'Ello?"

"Cloud, baby," his mom greeted.

"Ma!" Cloud sat up, wiping his eyes, pushing Sephiroth's blanket off of him. "Did you hear from your friend?"

"I did. Tifa's uncle is glaring at me to use the phone, so I'll make this quick. According to Águeta, there are a lot of cacti that grow up where she is on the other side of the mountains. They're not as snowy as us, as you know."

"Yeah."

"Well - she said that this happened to someone in her old village. They got poisoned by one of the  _cacti come to life_."

"What's one doing all the way out here?"

"I don't know. It hitched a ride? Someone brought it? Here's the important part - it infects those with a one-sided love."

"It...what?"

"She swears. A one-sided love - like, loving someone who doesn't know you exist or who doesn't return your feelings. You cough up flowers until eventually you choke on them."

Cloud asked fearfully, "...And die?"

"...Mm.  _Hold on a minute, I'm talking to my son."_ His mom swore under her breath, and Cloud found himself grinning on the other end, even though he was itching to go run to Zack now. "They call it Hanahaki disease. Does he have feelings for anybody?"

"Not that I know of. I'll have to ask him."

"You can do it, my sunshine.  _Yeah, okay, I'm going._ "

Cloud held the PHS tight. "Thanks, Ma. Let me know if you hear anything else. I appreciate you, really."

"Bye, baby."

Cloud sat on Sephiroth's couch for a moment, a little stunned, before flying into action. He brushed his teeth with the toothbrush Sephiroth had unpackaged for him last night, left a quickly-scribbled note thanking Sephiroth for his hospitality, and bolted.

Zack was in his apartment. He'd tried going on some light missions, but too much physical activity aggravated the flowers. He'd been marathoning video games nonstop the past week. Cloud knocked loudly on the door.

"I - ack - hold on!"

When Zack came to the door, there was a small pink petal stuck to his bottom lip. Cloud reached out and grabbed it, wiping a bit of spittle off his friend's lip.

"Who do you have a crush on?" he demanded.

"Um, what?"

Cloud shut the door behind him and ushered Zack to the couch. The flower jar was over halfway full. The ones on the bottom were starting to rot, turning the whole thing sludgy brown on the bottom. "That's seriously disgusting," he said.

"I know."

When Cloud told Zack about his mom's detective work, he seemed skeptical.

"So… I'm some sort of lovestruck movie character who's gonna puke flowers until I die."

"Uh. I guess so."

"Even if it was true, what about you? It got you too."

"I don't… like anyone."

Zack scowled. "You're totally lying - you're so shitty at it."

Cloud swallowed, looking around. "Okay. I guess I do."

And if Cloud did, that meant…

Zack considered this. "So if they didn't like you back, or if they didn't know who you were… then you'd be as sick as I am."

"I. Guess so."

Zack stared at him. Cloud stared back, afraid to come to the same conclusion. Slowly, Zack smiled. "So they love you back," he said. "I get it."

Cloud couldn't think about this right now. "But you?"

Zack flushed red - he was always so cool and confident. It was fun to see. Cloud grinned. "It's  _me_ , isn't it."

"Fuck you."

Cloud laughed. "Genesis."

"Dude. He's way too good for me."

"Is it… Angeal?"

"I had a crush on him a couple of years ago, but Spike, he's obviously head over heels for Gen."

Zack was answering his questions but not offering anything on his own. "Zack," Cloud groused, "Just tell me."

Zack groaned, rubbing the back of his neck. "Alright, alright. Um. I guess… well. There's this girl. She sells flowers."

* * *

They were outside a crumbling church. It was… ugly, and yet it was beautiful. The sun lamps under the plate hit the stained glass so nicely. Cloud felt at peace.

Zack looked like he was going to take a shit right there on the street.

"How'd you meet her?"

"I haven't," Zack muttered. "Not officially. I got my wallet stolen around here by some punk kid. She helped me get it back. I dunno, she's just -" Zack shrugged helplessly. "She's really pretty."

There was a lot there Zack wasn't saying; there was more to this story he wasn't saying. Seeing a person once wasn't enough to make you fall for them after all. Maybe he'd bought flowers from her before. Maybe he saw her around sometimes. Maybe he thought about her on missions.

"I can't do this," Zack said, and hiccupped out a pink petal.

"C'mon," Cloud said, thumping him on the back. "You have the best lead-in  _ever_."

"Yeah. Yeah, I do." Zack nodded. He bounced on his toes, swinging his arms like he was about to go into the boxing ring. "Fuck! Okay." He strode inside and Cloud followed closely behind.

She was there, crouched in a flowerbed. The pews were empty save for an old woman sleeping quietly in one of the back ones under a threadbare coat used as a blanket. Her hands were streaked with dirt, as were her bare feet and knees, her dress hiked up above them.

"Hello," she greeted as they approached. She looked wary - Zack's eyes were unmistakable. "Can I help you?"

Zack looked nervous, standing there. He looked at Cloud, wide-eyed. He brought a hand to his chest and thumped it.

"Um," Cloud said. "My friend, Zack - he's been wanting to meet you."

"Oh." She instantly looked less interested than she had a moment ago. "I appreciate your interest, but I'm not looking for a…"

Zack burped, loud and echoing slightly with the acoustics of the church. She stared at him, her nose wrinkled in disgust.

Then Zack bent over and started to gag.

"Ah, Zack!" Cloud rubbed his back, occasionally pounding the heel of his hand between Zack's shoulder blades. He coughed and coughed, heaving and occasionally hitting his sternum. Then he reached into his mouth and pulled out two whole cactus blossoms.

"Ugh," he said. "Sorry, I got nervous. I hear you sell flowers. Well - I've been coughing these things up for about two weeks now, it's some kind of mystery sickness. Can I help the business at all?"

The brown-haired girl looked Zack up and down. She eyed the flowers.

"If we dry them off," she said critically, "They could sell for a few Gil."

Zack whooped, pumping a fist and winking at Cloud, over-the-top cheesy, compensating for being scared shitless by confronting his crush. If she didn't like Zack back… would he die?

"I'm Aerith, by the way. You are?" She looked kindly at Cloud, who introduced himself.

Zack boasted, "Yeah, he's my best friend. Was with me when I got attacked by the monster that gave me this disease…"

"Tell me about it," Aerith said, leading Zack to a pew. "And maybe start working on a few more of the blossoms?"

Cloud saw himself out - Zack would be fine.

* * *

He needed a day to think it over before going to Sephiroth.

In that time he saw both Genesis and Angeal, who was back from abroad. He gave Cloud a similar look-over that Sephiroth had and thanked him for taking such good care of Zack. He was still sick but starting to cough them up less often. At Cloud's request, Zack had not yet explained what the secret to them was.

He went to Sephiroth's office, a small room just underneath the SOLDIER floor. It was decorated so sparsely, without any of the plants, books, or framed pictures that humanized Angeal's and Genesis's. It… had Sephiroth though, so it was plenty human.

"Cloud," Sephiroth greeted when he came in. He had a pen in his hand and a half-finished report on his desk, but he turned it over so Cloud wouldn't see and pushed it aside as he came in. "How is Zack?"

"I think he'll be fine." The confidence in his voice was clear; Sephiroth tilted his head.

"My mom," Cloud clarified. "Her friend that she talked to. It's an… urban legend, I guess. I dunno." Sephiroth waited for him to elaborate.

Cloud explained: the cactus monster, whatever it was, if it got you - if you had a one-sided love, you'd be a spontaneous flower machine until it eventually killed you. Hanahaki.

Sephiroth didn't look like he wanted to believe it, but he was trying, because it was Cloud telling him this.

"It attacked the both of you."

"It did," Cloud confirmed. "That's kind of why I'm here."

Cloud saw the moment it dawned on Sephiroth. His lips parted, his usually impassive face grew soft and open with wonder. His eyes darted up to Cloud's, holding his gaze, surprised.

"It's either that I don't like anyone at all - which isn't true, or that… whoever I have feelings for returns them." Cloud perched on the edge of the desk, just beside Sephiroth now. They weren't touching, but they could be. He reached out a hand between them, slowly, waiting for it to be taken, if Sephiroth wanted.

"I really hope I'm right about this whole thing, otherwise I'm going to be really embarrassed."

Sephiroth reached for Cloud's hand. Paused. Retracted it. A pang of hurt shot through Cloud. Then Sephiroth peeled off his glove, and then his bare hand wrapped strong and warm against Cloud's. His thumb rubbed against the back of Cloud's hand. It was… gentle. Cloud didn't know Sephiroth could be quite this gentle.

"And Zack?"

"A girl in the slums. She's nice. I made him introduce himself."

"Good."

Cloud squeezed; Sephiroth squeezed back, and then gave that hand a light tug, pulling him down for a kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> For sefikura week, the prompt being Hanahaki (a condition where someone with a one-sided love coughs up flowers). Please feel free to find the other parts on my tumblr (username - modeoheim). If you enjoyed this, I would really appreciate you leaving a comment or clicking the kudos button. Thank you very much!


End file.
